Salman Rushdie Attacker Is 'Surprised' Author Survived The Knife Attack

The 24-year-old from New Jersey accused of stabbing writer Salman Rushdie is "surprised" he survived the stabbing attack. He said this in an interview with the New York Post.

Hadi Matar, 24, was nabbed immediately last week after he stabbed Rushdie at the stage of a literary event in New York.

Matar told reporters that he "respected' Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who in 1989 issued a fatwa against Rushdie for "blasphemy" over his book Satanic Verses.

"When I heard he survived, I was surprised, I guess," Matar told the New York Post.

He also expressed his "dislike" for the writer and said, "I don't like the person. I don't think he's a very good person." He further added that he had read a couple of pages of the controversial book Satanic Verses that forced Rusdhie to go into hiding for 10 years after it was published in 1988.

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